A Holiday Treat! Brand New Music From The Chorus Of 2007-8!!

Now that we are into the month of December, the chorus is getting ready for its busiest holiday season of all-time! With at least 7 major performances this month, things are really coming together for a brilliant holiday show! (By the way, mark your calendars. The date will be December 20th for our 8th Annual Holiday Choral Concert!) Here's a sample of the goods from our rehearsal yesterday!

Andrew's got "Blues For Christmas", and he rocks 'em! A great song by John Lee Hooker.


A beautiful rendition of a Chanukah song I wrote.


The traditional carol, "Hark The Herald Angels Sing!"

PS22 Chorus 2003 Classic Holiday Show Performance

Tiana & Zoisa open the show oh so adorably with, "Gee Whiz! It's Christmas" by Carla Thomas!


Clive's immortal performance of "Back Door Santa"!!


Dritan does his awesome Chanukah rap for Esa Enai, a Hebrew traditional.


Shaina kissin' up to Santa, with her spot on singing of "(Back Door) Santa Baby"!


Deon gets majorly dissed by Santa and sings his "Christmas Blues", which he wrote himself! Afterwards he sings the song he performed in our 2003 American Idol competition, Anquette's "I Will Always Be There For You".


Here's another version of "I Will Always Be There For You" which I like even better!

PS22 Chorus 2001 Classic Holiday Show Performance

As this year's chorus is hard at work preparing for PS22's 9th annual holiday choral concert, we thought we'd whet your appetites for the holiday season with some classic performances from past winter shows. We begin with the holiday choral concert of 2001!!!


Our rip-roaring rendition of Destiny's Child's R&B classic, "Independent Women", rewritten for the holidays! "Santa hear this! Bring on Christmas! Throw those presents at me!" The soloists in blue are:

Kimberly in blue (ultracool, and sister of current chorus member, Justin)

Raven in blue (great singer and great basketball player!)

Adiza in white ('The Diz' who's gone on to LaGuardia High School for vocal music!) &

Jasmine in white (currently the CEO of her own ethnic hair and skin product line, Edenbodyworks. Check out her accomplishments, including appearances on Montel Williams, Donny Deutch, & Oprah here)

A song we used for Chanukah, called Zichronot M'Afrika by Shlomo Gronich! The kids did a great job on an extremely difficult song! Calixto and Christina did sound fantastic as a duo.


Here is an original song we used for our holiday show AND our September 11th docu-drama currently being exhibited at TRIBUTE WTC, The World Trade Center Museum in NYC. It's called "A Healing", and Carmelo sings the song so beautifully. Check out his amazing recent performance of the same song (only six years later!), from our recent performance at Tribute WTC in October.


And finally, here is the chorus featuring two of the greatest, O'Neil and Kemi, singing the beautiful song by John Gorka called "Bells On Christmas Day". I've always loved this song, and the kids do it here so well.

2 More Classic American Idol Performances!

Two more performances from our original American Idol competition have been added to our 2003 American Idol page.

First, here is the winner of the 5th grade chorus member category, Farouk, singing "Hush Lil' Lady", the great song by Corey and Lil' Romeo!


And here is little Zaria in kindergarten when she stole the show with her amazing performance of the spiritual, "Do Lord". No surprise that Zaria is currently a star member of this year's PS22 Chorus!


For more classic American Idol 2003 highlights, click here.

For highlights of our 2005 American Idol 2 competition, click here.

The Staten Island Advance Honors The Chorus' Accomplishments With A Great Write-Up!

Click on the article to enlarge!

Big thanks to Diane Lore, Irving Silverstein and The Staten Island Advance for the beautiful article and awesome pics!

PLUS: New Additional American Idol 2 Competition Video Footage Posted Below!

Watch Some Highlights From PS22's 2005 American Idol 2 Competition!

Sierra singing "Hero" by Mariah Carey, which won her the title of American Idol!

PS22's 2005 American Idol Competition showcased the talents of some amazing performers! The finalists were all incredible, and developed their acts with unbelievable professionalism. And now it's time to immortalize these performances on the blog!

First here are some rather entertaining auditions! Here are two PS22 Chorus members of 2005-6, Cynthia (singing Mary J. Blige's Real Love) & Russell (being Russell!)


The next video is from the semi-finals round. Here I get ambushed by contestant Shiva, who was auditioning in the comedy category! I must say, he got me good! But I get MY revenge about two minutes into the video, when some little boy comes into the auditorium to give me a cupcake for his birthday! And boy, revenge was never so "sweet"!!!


Another video from the semi-finals round! The amazing Ben (whose performance of Kirk Franklin's "Now Behold The Lamb" has gotten over 25,000 hits on the internet) performs, "Not Guilty (Thank You Lord For Saving Us)" by John P. Kee and The New Life Choir. Ben is one of the greatest talents to ever come out of the PS22 Chorus! And I'm happy to say he is still singing, and sounds better than ever! Enjoy him here in his fifth grade year, and at the top of his game!

Here now is first grader, Shawn, singing his awesome version of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Poor Shawn, he planned his act meticulously from beginning to end, and as it happens in show business, NOTHING goes as planned! Didn't matter though -- it made his act even more hysterical and adorable! And he ended up winning the title of Extreme Junior Singer (kindergarten through second grade) American Idol!

Here third grader Mariah sings Lumidee's hit song "I'll Never Leave You (Uh Oh)", and rocks the house!!


Ziha sings an incredible version of Simple Plan's, "Welcome To My Life"!!


And here we have fourth grader Alexa singing a fantastic rendition of Michelle Branch's "All You Wanted". Her sensitive performance and unique timbre won her the title of American Idol in the Junior Singer category (third and fourth grade).


And finally, here is the amazing Sierra, with her title-winning performance of Mariah Carey's "Hero" at the American Idol 2 Competition! Sierra literally had the crowd roaring with enthusiasm and thunderous applause! Safe to say, SHE NAILED IT!

Another Milestone For The PS22 Chorus!

As of October 24, 2007, over 600,000 PS22 Chorus videos have been viewed on the internet -- an astounding number, especially when considering we started our website only a little over a year ago. MINDBOGGLING!!! Congrats to all the PS22 Chorus members, present and past, on this absolutely incredible accomplishment!! A very proud music teacher am I!

The PS22 Chorus at Tribute WTC Museum!

Daniel M., Islam, Courtney, Michael, Lonsdale, & Daniel B. checking out the exhibit

Here is a selection from the PS22 Chorus performance at the World Trade Center Museum. It was truly an emotional day, and the wonderful folks at Tribute WTC made us feel right at home. The song was beautifully filmed by professional videographer Jonathan Rivera, uncle of Carmelo, the former chorus member (current headbanger!) who sang at the museum with us.

The song is "We're N.Y.C." originally "It's Gonna Be Me" by N'Sync. The song was rewritten by one of our fifth grade classes as their contribution to our Sept. 11 tribute movie, THE CONFERENCE that is currently being featured as part of an exhibit at the museum.

AND NOW SOME GREAT PHOTOS!

The chorus checking out PS22's video entry at Tribute's Children's exhibit!

The PS22 Chorus with the incredible museum staff!

PS22 Chorus alumnus Carmelo striking his best rock star pose!

Altos singing soulfully...

...and the Sopranos following suit....

When Angela and Isaac sing, "Time" stops to listen....

Mrs. Burns & Mr. B posin' with Jarred

Robert stops a moment to take it all in.

Matthew having a good ol' time!

Tribute curator Lee Ielpe with the chorus

Carmelo laughing it up with Museum Curator Meriam Lobel

Alexandra performing her amazing rendition of "Amazing Grace"

Isaiah singing with his usual soulfulness.

The men of the chorus making their presence known!

Groupies Mrs. Johnson & Mrs. Burns hangin' with the sopranos!

Wessede, Mr. B, and Aminah beaming after a great performance and a great day!

For more on the PS22 Chorus's Affiliation With Tribute WTC museum, click on the following links:

PS22 Receives An Award From Tribute WTC Museum

Tribute WTC Museum Exhibit Opens Featuring PS22's September 11th Docu-Drama

See Excerpts From PS22's September 11th Docu-Drama Currently Featured In Tribute WTC Museum Exhibit

PS22 Has Its Public Debut....And Again.....And Again.....

The PS22 Chorus hits the road!

Let's just start by saying that it was a very busy week for the chorus! The kids gave their public debut on Tuesday at the Staaten for the Reading Volunteers Ceremony sponsored by The Staten Island Mental Health Society. Needless to say, they were an instant success! And I'm proud to report that the audience was moved to tears and thunderous applause!

The PS22 Chorus give their debut performance at the Staaten on Tuesday!

Then on Thursday, the chorus sang at The Tribute WTC Museum, where excerpts from PS22's award-winning musical docu-drama are being featured in its new children's exhibit. It was wonderful to see so many parents and family members come by to the museum and experience the heart and soul that Lee, Jennifer, Meri, Caroline, Wendy, Tondi, and the rest of Tribute put into their work, truly a labor of love. The kids were deeply moved by the visit, and it made them appreciate the depth of those we named heroes that came out of the September 11th tragedy. It was such a moving experience, and the chorus must have been inspired to have vocalized so beautifully. It was an unforgettable event. I will be posting more footage (including video) of the museum performance shortly.

The Chorus with Tribute Museum curator Lee Ielpe.

And to round off a busy week, the chorus marched today in the Staten Island African American, Caribbean American Heritage Parade. The parade ended at Richmond County Stadium, where a celebration took place that welcomed the president of Liberia, and even L'il Mama with her huge hit, Lip Gloss. The chorus was proud to participate and had a fun time marching along the water, and singing all the way! The way-too-cool Mrs. Franks was there with previous chorus member Jahnelle to lead the way. Other former PS22 Chorus alumni came to march with us like Amanda and Kestina, and that was a real treat!

The chorus on stage at Tappen Park!

Marching down Bay Street!

PS22 Chorus with some of our post-grads!

Presenting.... THE CHORUS OF 2007-8!!!!

The PS22 Chorus members have been hard at work preparing for their debut performances coming up this week! To give you a little taste of what's to come from this phenomenal new bunch of fifth graders, here is a new video recorded yesterday, October 12th, submitted for your approval! It's hard to believe the new group is together less than a month and sounding this polished! A good sign for things to come.....

So here it is, presenting the debut video from The All-New PS22 Chorus singing "Time" by Tom Waits (also recorded by friend of the chorus, Tori Amos)! The chorus sounds AMAZING, as do our soloists, Angela and Isaac, with hardly any practice at all!! Click on the triangle in the middle to play, kids!

And for fun, here's the original version, sung live by Tom Waits. Wouldn't you say he has an interesting "timbre" kids? Eh, eh?? :)



And another live version of the song, sung here so beautifully by the extraordinary Tori Amos.....

The PS22 Chorus of 2007-8 Is Preparing For A Long-Anticipated Debut!

The new PS22 Chorus altos chillin' on break, and Quahiem trying to steal my job!

Well it's safe to say that this year is off to an AMAZING start right from the get-go! The new fifth grade chorus members are sounding like they've been doing their thing for ages now, and, astoundingly, they've only been together for less than a month! They are not going to disappoint all those whom await their debut.

Speaking of which, The PS22 Chorus is already in demand, and are booked for 2 performances! The first is the annual Reading Volunteers Breakfast on Tuesday, October 16th. Then on Thursday, October 18th at 12:00 noon, they will be performing at Tribute WTC 9/11 Visitor Center, the World Trade Center museum where video excerpts from our award-winning September 11th docu-drama are currently being exhibited. For directions and more information on Tribute WTC, click on the above link to the museum. The chorus is deeply honored to have the opportunity to sing and be featured at this awe-inspiring place. It's a testimony to the talents and hearts of our extraordinary students.

So here's to another great year for the all-new PS22 Chorus!! And get ready for some video performances to show up on the site in the very near future!

PS22 Receives Award from WTC Museum!

PS22 was honored today at Tribute WTC, The World Trade Center Museum, for our September 11th video project, "The Conference", where excerpts of the film and quotes from PS22 students are prominently featured in its new children's exhibit. It was a wonderful honor to have the hard work that was put into the film recognized by such a prestigious organization. If you would like to see excerpts from the film, click here, but we encourage you to go down and see the museum for yourself. It is truly an awe-inspiring place, whose foundation is based on heart and soul. We thank Lee, Meri, Jennifer, Wendy, Caroline, and everyone at Tribute for including us and acknowledging P.S.22's efforts to take September 11th back from the terrorists.

Below is a lovely write-up about the awards ceremony that was featured in Saturday's edition of the Staten Island Advance